The Senate is considering legislation (possibly voting on it today) that would ban spouses of senators from lobbying any part of the chamber—unless the spouse was lobbying a year before the senator was elected.

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is set to report to prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania today to begin serving his sentence for his Florida fraud conviction. He'd received several extensions on his reporting date because of his continued cooperation with federal prosecutors on the wide-ranging probe into his influence-peddling scheme involving several members of Congress.

By a slim margin, the House narrowly agreed to a rule limiting amendments to a very weak and watered-down ethics and lobbying bill. Basically, House GOP leaders are trying to pass as little reform as they can get away with. Twelve Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing it. The final vote is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Buried deep in The New York Times story--21st paragraph, in fact--about the Senate approving lobbying legislation yesterday is the nugget of the story: